The high-protein food market has been one of the most closely watched categories in UK food and drink for several years now. Consumer demand has grown post-pandemic, but it has also broadened, deepened and begun pulling capital into corners of the market that barely existed five years ago.
For those advising on transactions in this space, that trajectory has made for a genuinely fascinating few years, and the past year has been the most revealing yet.
Walk down any supermarket aisle and the evidence is impossible to ignore - high-protein labels on yoghurts, snack bars, ready meals. Watching your protein intake used to be for body builders and gym-goers, but it has gone mainstream. Where consumer demand leads at that scale, dealmakers follow.
Last year confirmed what those of us working in this space had been expecting: the market is maturing and reshaping how businesses think about growth, structure and longevity. The deals being made are about building businesses that can own it for the long term.
Buying what you already know
Two deals from last year are worth reflecting on. When Yeo Valley acquired dairy brand The Collective, it was not a speculative bet on a new category. The Collective was already using Yeo Valley’s production facilities. The acquisition simply made formal what was already a deep commercial relationship. In doing so, Yeo Valley locked in supply chain control and added a well-established high-protein yoghurt brand to its portfolio in one move.
Bako Group’s acquisition of Bako Western told a similar story: two businesses that had shared a brand since the 1960s but operated independently, finally brought together under one roof.
Some of the most interesting deals happening in food and drink right now are not about bold bets on unfamiliar territory, they are about integration and resilience with companies buying the suppliers, logistics partners and adjacent operators they already depend on. With margins under sustained pressure, bringing those relationships in-house is one of the more reliable ways to protect the bottom line.
What comes after the protein bar trend?
You might have noticed that the sweet protein bar aisle is getting crowded. The category is not dying, but the appetite for more variants of the product has most likely peaked.
The more interesting opportunity, and the one attracting serious private equity attention, is savoury and functional snacking. Puma Growth Partners investing $8m into LOVE CORN, recognised as the UK’s fastest-growing snack brand in 2024, is a good example. TRIBE’s £2.4m raise, in a funding round backed by Mercia Ventures and Yeo Ventures, pointed in the same direction.
Investors are looking for high-protein brands that are differentiated and not competing in an already saturated category. These high-growth businesses are in a market with genuine potential for growth.
An eye on the future of high protein
The underlying consumer shift driving away from ultra-processed foods and towards products that are natural, functional and protein-rich will likely stay. I predict it will continue to evolve with new weight loss trends reshaping the market.
The rapid mainstream adoption of weight-loss medications such as GLP-1 drugs has already changed the food and drink market in ways that are only beginning to be understood. Users of these medications tend to eat less overall but become more deliberate about nutritional quality, prioritising protein intake to preserve muscle mass and seeking out functional, nutrient-dense products. For high-protein food brands, that is not a headwind. It is a tailwind, and a significant one.
The broader wellness trend reinforces this. Covid-19 and an ageing population have fundamentally shifted how consumers think about their health, driving sustained growth in vitamins, supplements and functional products.
The Holland & Barrett and Well Pharmacy concession partnership announced in December 2025 is a marker of how seriously businesses are taking this shift, and deal activity reflects it. Private equity investment into supplement and wellness brands has been steady, with appetite growing for companies that can credibly sit at the intersection of nutrition, performance and everyday health.
There are some challenges to navigate. The expansion of the sugar tax, rising wage costs and higher business rates for warehouse properties will create some friction for manufacturers across several sub-sectors. Regulatory complexity is also one for businesses to watch: advertising rules around health and nutrition claims must be navigated well, and businesses that have built their identity around functional or weight-loss benefits are subject to scrutiny from the Advertising Standards Authority and the wider regulatory environment.
We work closely with clients to navigate these challenges, whether that is structuring deals to account for regulatory risk, or advising on how product positioning and marketing claims hold up under current rules. Getting that right prior to investment or acquisition is important for buyers.
Our expectation for 2026 is that there will likely be more M&A activity in the high-protein market. Interest rates had been easing although this is looking less certain now, confidence is cautiously returning and private equity that has been sitting on dry powder is starting to deploy it.
The deals that will define the year are unlikely to be the large leveraged transactions of previous cycles. They will be mid-market, strategic and, as 2025 demonstrated, often involving businesses that have been quietly circling each other for years.
It will be interesting to see how the weight loss trends will move the high-protein market on even further.
About the authors:
Sam Sharp is a partner at Browne Jacobson specialising in mergers and acquisitions in the food and drink sector, advising buyers, sellers and investors across the full range of transactions from strategic acquisitions to private equity-backed deals.
Daniel Knowles is an associate with a focus on food and drink M&A, supporting clients through the complexities of dealmaking in one of the UK’s most dynamic consumer sectors.
